General Archive of the Indies

It is located in the Casa de la Lonja de Sevilla, a place chosen by Carlos III in 1785 in order to locate the Archivo de Indias. It is born with the aim of centralizing in only one place the documents related to the Spanish colonies that until then were in different archives: Simancas, Cádiz and Seville.

It is a square floor building, with two floors and a large central courtyard with a marvellous decoration. In the XVII the second floor and the Cruz del Juramento (Oarth Cross) were built. Nowadays, it is the main existing archive related to the activity of Spain in America and the Philippines, containing information about the Political History and the Social History, the Economic History and the mentalities, History of Church and Art History or the geography of those territories.

The archive keeps pieces of incalculable historical value such as autographs of the main characters of the Discovering, Colon´ s diary, plans of the main American cities, etc.

The redesign of the main staircase by Lucas Cintara based on marble sheets should be highlighted.